Page 40 of Between Broomsticks and Beating Wings (Love X Magic #3)
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
GREAT HUGS BY THE GREAT HEARTH
Rune
K ari and Haddy flew on Apple back to Hel’s Hall while Tove and I walked through the snowy landscape. The reintroduction went well, all things considered, but I thought about the odd expression Kari wore right before Apple took off with her on her back.
A gust of breeze brushed my hair across my forehead, and its cool touch reminded me of a spirit right after being separated from its body. I craved that sensation and the high that accompanied growing my collection of souls. My tongue ran over my teeth, as if hungry for that type of hunt.
As I stared out at the mountainous expanse, seeing souls littering the area, I wondered which of them I’d passed up. Which of these mortals had I watched the final moments of and decided against taking to Valhalla?
I’d never worked at the Helheim sect, but I imagine the job was vastly different than what I’d been trained to do.
Here, it didn’t matter if you were a viking.
It didn’t matter if your death was glorious.
All you had to do was not drown in the sea and not be a horrible person.
There were other halls for those individuals, ones valkyries never saw.
In my early days, I took far too many souls, loving the feeling of them buzzing through me.
It was hard to forget those nights, and even so, the number of souls I collected on my least picky nights couldn’t come close to the number the Helheim sect took each night.
I presumed they were high every time the sun hid from the sky, losing their minds in pure intoxication, just so these souls could find their eternal peace.
When I glanced around at the happy families, I wondered if a fate such as theirs would be all so bad.
I thought of Kari’s family that I was on my way to meet.
Once we left Helheim, the next time Kari saw her family again, she should be older than her mother.
She should have more grey hair, don wrinkles on her hands and under her beautiful eyes.
I would give anything for that future, a future in which she lived.
I’d been in the underworld long enough to know living wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, and only in death could you find happiness. But what I thought was irrelevant, because if Kari wanted to grow old, I would find a way to make that happen.
As I took my first step into Hel’s Hall, I shook the snowflakes from my hair and rubbed my hands together.
The warmth of her castle instantly found me, and I breathed a sigh of relief as I regained feeling in my fingers and toes.
If I had known we were going to stay in Helheim for almost an entire lunar cycle, I would have packed different clothes.
Sure, there were some in the wardrobe back in our bedchamber, but the only thing that fit over my thighs were the dresses, and they would hardly do.
“Rune!” Haddy called out, waving me over to where she sat next to Kari.
She stood, leaving her empty seat for me, finding a place on a fur rug next to the hearth.
No fire roared in the stone opening, but false orange tendrils did lick up the sides.
The spirits couldn’t feel the difference between a fake flame and a real one anyway.
It was more about the comfort of familiarity over anything else.
Even though the residents could eat, fuck, sleep, bathe, the one thing they couldn’t do was feel temperature.
I shot Haddy a smile and then took my seat next to Kari.
She was draped in furs, and when I took my place, she shifted so she could share, covering my lap.
The hide was warm from her heat, and it sent prickles up my arms, thinking of a future robbed of the sensation she gave me.
My skin was too covered for her to see the effect that gesture had had on me, but when she gazed down at my lap, I had a feeling she didn’t need to see my pimpled flesh to know.
“And who is this?” a gruff voice called out, and I lifted my gaze to the man sitting across from me.
Kettle Ulfson.
Kari’s father was a large man with a thick, red beard. He wore a permanent scowl and had deep grooves running parallel across his forehead to prove it.
“This is Rune,” Kari began. “She’s the valkyrie I told you about, the one who brought me here to visit you.”
“Hmm,” he grumbled, not satisfied with her explanation. I figured I wouldn’t open my mouth until I was asked a question. It was better to let them all digest what Kari was saying before adding my own explanation to the mix. Not only that, but I didn’t know how much truth Kari planned on spilling.
Kari’s mother, Sigrid, smiled at me wearily, then said, “Rune, why did you bring our darling girl back to us?” I stared into her deep blue eyes, thinking of the curse that followed her into death.
Was Hel watching us now? Was she staring at me through Sigrid’s eyes, trying to gather information on us?
Was the woman even aware that the goddess was using her, that she had been her entire life?
I certainly wouldn’t trust her with any sensitive information, though it was no fault of her own. This was all Hel’s doing.
“It’s nice to finally meet you all,” I addressed the woman, then let my gaze scan over Kettle, Haddy, Malfrid, and Odel. “I’m sure Kari has told you why she’s here?”
“Indeed,” Sigrid said, her smile fading. “But what I want to know is, why would a valkyrie take interest in a living mortal? So much so that she was willing to bring her to her deceased family in Helheim?”
I was hoping for a little bit more than “indeed” to work with in determining what Kari had told her family.
Haddy knew more of the truth than anyone, but was she still holding it close to her chest?
I wasn’t sure what she had to gain by keeping it from her own family.
I had nothing left to offer her, and neither did Kari, outside of her continued presence.
I suppose that was enough of an incentive.
That, and Haddy didn’t like her other sisters enough to betray Kari.
“It’s okay, you can tell them,” Kari whispered to the side of my face. I shifted to meet her soft gaze, an encouraging smile lifting the corner of her lips.
Tell them what? Tell them I watched her for years? Tell them I think the world of her still? Tell them I stole her death?
What was it that she wanted me to tell them?
I cleared my throat. “Kari is a very special seeress. She caught my attention a few years ago, and I kept watch over her to ensure her safety and the safety of the seidr within her. When she mentioned having a connection to Hel, I thought that bringing her here would bring the Goddess of Death much satisfaction, and Kari agreed to come with me willingly,” I said with a practiced smile.
“I have to admit, I did not bring her here to be reunited with her family, but it is a pleasant addition to the trip.”
“You’re not an attendant of Hel. Why would you do this for her?” a girl I assumed to be Malfrid asked.
“Because a happy Hel is a happy Odin. The Allfather wants all the gods and goddess across the realms to be satisfied and at peace. Odin takes no issue with my trip here with Kari.” It was bullshit.
I knew it, Kari knew it, and Haddy probably knew it too.
I only hoped the rest of her family couldn’t taste my lies.
Kari’s father grumbled something to her mother, and Odel stared at me with unsettling blue eyes. Her lips twisted, and she said, “Special how?”
Before I could open my mouth, Kari said, “You know Mom and I have the sight. While her seidr was strong on Midgard, mine is stronger here. I can wield seidr of the underworld because of the curse Hel placed upon our ancestor, Norfrid. I’ve talked to Hel herself, and she’s confirmed this. She?—”
“You’ve talked to Hel?” Malfrid sputtered, her cheeks sunken from the pucker in her lips. “And how did you know your seidr is stronger here before you left Midgard?”
“Rune sensed it,” Kari lied, her jaw ticking as she did. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who didn’t trust her family with the truth. “She sensed my power.”
“Well, how?—”
“So many questions!” Kari laughed, her posture tight despite trying to come across as casual.
“It’s been two years since I’ve seen you.
Does how I got here or why matter more than the fact that I am?
I want to know how it’s been here. Are you all doing okay?
Are you… happy?” Her brows pinched as she peered into each of their eyes.
Haddy didn’t bother responding, as we already had the chance to catch up with her, but Odel and Malfrid exchanged a loaded glance.
They went to speak at the same time, then paused and grinned awkwardly at one another.
If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought they were twins in the way their mannerisms matched and the evident similarities in their features, down to the same shade of hair and eyes.
Malfrid, the older of the two, placed her hand on Odel’s knee.
“We’re good. It’s quite nice here, and there’s even a hall that mimics each of the seasons if we get tired of the snow.
” Her voice wavered, and she twisted her hands in her lap.
“But Kari…we’ve had a lot of time to think, and Odel and I are really grateful you’re here, because our hearts have been feeling quite heavy knowing what we, uh, tried to do to you.
” The sass Kari described her sister as having was leached from her tone as she stared at Kari with unblinking eyes.